> The Brewers needed a win like this after last night’s 13-inning disaster. They came back and took down the Cubs 5-3 on Thursday afternoon thanks to another great pitching performance and some timely hitting. Junior Guerra (3-0, 3.96 ERA) continued to prove that he has earned a rotation spot and won’t be going anywhere when Matt Garza returns; Guerra threw seven innings while giving up three runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out a career-high 11 while holding down one of the league’s best offenses.

The Cubs got on the board immediately when Dexter Fowler hit a home run to lead off the game. Miguel Montero hit an RBI single in the second inning to give the Cubs an early 2-0 cushion. Milwaukee got one of those back in the bottom of the second when Kirk Nieuwenhuis scored on a wild pitch by Chicago starter Jason Hammel (5-1, 2.31 ERA).

Chris Carter tied it at 2-2 in the fourth, breaking out of his slump with his twelfth home run of the season. The Brewers took the lead for good on Nieuwenhuis’s two-run shot in the sixth inning. The Cubs got one more in the seventh when Fowler scored on a wild pitch by Guerra, but Milwaukee added an insurance run in the eighth thanks to Hernan Perez’s RBI single.

The bullpen was a little shaky, which brought back bad memories of Wednesday night, but in the end managed to finish the game. Michael Blazek worked around a walk and a hit in a scoreless eighth; he also struck out two. Tyler Thornburg issued back-to-back walks to Addison Russell and Montero to start the ninth, but rebounded and recorded the save.

> It was nice to see the Brewers beat up on Hammel a little bit, as the sinkerballer has typically had his way with the Crew in his career. Coming into today, Hammel boasted an 8-0 record against the Brewers with a 2.37 ERA, making this the first time he’s lost to them.

Not only that, but Hammel has also been especially good for the Cubs this season, bringing a 5-0 record with a 1.77 ERA into today’s start. He hadn’t allowed more than three runs in a start yet this season, but that changed today, as he allowed four on five hits in six innings. Hammel walked two and struck out seven.

NEWS

> Ryan Braun was held out of the lineup again today due to the stiff back that kept him out of the lineup last night. It’s unrelated to the wrist issue that made him miss back-to-back games this past weekend, but is a cause for concern, as Braun had back surgery this past offseason.

> Despite the struggles of bench players Ramon Flores and Colin Walsh, Craig Counsell tells Tom Haudricourt that the Brewers aren’t giving up on them anytime soon. Flores is out of options while Walsh was a Rule 5 pick this past offseason, so the Brewers likely won’t be able to hang onto either in the minors should they choose to shed them from the big league club.

Flores, a left-handed hitting outfielder, has struggled to a .197 average in 87 plate appearances in 2016. The infielder Walsh, also a left-handed hitter, has been even worse, as he carries a meager .089 average over 60 plate appearances, although he does have a .317 on-base percentage. However, Flores would have to clear waivers if the Brewers designate him for assignment and attempt to send him down, and Walsh would return to the Athletics should the Brewers opt to get rid of him.

STATS

> Today was Thornburg’s first career big league save. It was just the second in his entire professional career, with the first coming when he was in rookie ball back in 2010.

Thornburg was tasked with the ninth due to Jeremy Jeffress having been used in four straight games; that may explain Jeffress’s blown save last night.

> The Brewers lead the Majors in taking called third strikes. It’s noticeable that they’ve been more patient this year, but they definitely need to be more aggressive in some situations, and this is proof of that.

> After managing to hold a respectable batting average for a time, Carter has come crumbling back to earth. He’s down to .245, mainly because of an 0-for-23 spell that he snapped this past Sunday. He’s also striking out noticeably more often, with 23 in his last 15 games; Carter is hitting just .179 over that stretch.

> Milwaukee’s pitching staff held the Cubs– who still own the best record in baseball despite losing two of three to the Crew– to just seven runs in this three-game series.

> Ex-Brewer Khris Davis, now playing for Oakland, had a three-dinger game the other night, including a walk-off grand slam off Rangers closer Shawn Tolleson.

I’m happy Davis is catching on with the A’s. As much as I would have liked for the Brewers to keep him, he simply isn’t a National League player, as he might have the weakest outfield arm in the Majors. The Athletics appear to have caught onto that; after a few outfield starts early in the season, they’re using him primarily at designated hitter, which is where Davis belongs.

> White Sox starter Chris Sale made Major League history today, becoming the first pitcher to start a season 9-0 while maintaining a sub-2.00 ERA; with a complete-game win over the Astros today, the lefty’s ERA fell to a minuscule 1.58. Sale has been known as one of the game’s most dominant pitchers ever since his first full season as a starter in 2012, but he seems to have taken it to yet another level in 2016.

The best part about this is, despite the fact Sale is considered to be the Sox’s ace, he doesn’t even have the lowest ERA in Chicago’s rotation. Left-hander Jose Quintana– undoubtedly one of the, if not the, most underrated pitchers in baseball over the past few years– is the White Sox’s ERA leader at 1.54

> The Brewers start a three-gamer at Citi Field tomorrow night at 6:10 p.m. CT. Wily Peralta (2-4, 7.30 ERA), possibly the worst pitcher in baseball at the moment, will go for the Brewers, while the Mets counter with left-hander Steven Matz (5-1, 2.86 ERA). The good news is Peralta is 3-1 with a 2.88 ERA in his career against the Mets, but the bad news is those stats probably don’t matter with the funk Peralta is in. Matz has never faced the Brewers.

More bad news: the Brewers will have to face the core of New York’s rotation in Matz, Jacob deGrom (3-1, 2.50 ERA), and Noah Syndergaard (4-2, 2.19 ERA).

> If this season turns out as bad as everyone thinks it’s going to, this game will be remembered as one of its defining moments.

The Brewers fell to the Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings on Wednesday night. They wasted another stellar start from Jimmy Nelson (4-3, 3.07 ERA), just as they did in his last start against the Padres. But what made this game most painful was all of the opportunities the Brewers had to end it in extra innings, and the way they served up the go-ahead run: Carlos Torres walked Travis Wood– a reliever— with the bases loaded.

The game started as a pitchers’ duel between Nelson and John Lackey (4-2, 3.31 ERA), who pretty much matched each other pitch for pitch. Lackey was the first to crack when Alex Presley drove in the first run of the game with a fielder’s choice in the fifth inning. It appeared that was all Nelson was going to need, as he weaved in and out of trouble all throughout his 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Nelson gave up five hits, walked four, and struck out five, but was lifted in the eighth after Jorge Soler singled and Dexter Fowler drew a walk, putting runners on first and third with one out. Tyler Thornburg put out the fire, however, inducing a Jason Heyward pop-up and striking out Kris Bryant with a curveball in the dirt.

Things looked good heading into the top of the ninth, as Jeremy Jeffress, 11-for-11 in save chances entering play Wednesday, came in to close it out. However, it was not Jeffress’s night, as he drilled Anthony Rizzo to start the inning and then gave up a single to Ben Zobrist. Tommy La Stella followed by grounding out to put runners on second and third with one out. Then, for whatever reason, Craig Counsell moved his infield back, eliminating any chance of an out at home on a ground ball. And sure enough, the next batter, Addison Russell, hit a grounder to second baseman Scooter Gennett that would have been a potential out at home had the infield been in, but instead tied the game at 1-1.

That sent the game spiraling into extra innings. The Brewers had their chances, but didn’t capitalize, so I guess the fate they received was deserved. In the top of the thirteenth, the Cubs had runners on first and second with one out against Torres. He rallied to strike out Russell, and then intentionally walked Miguel Montero to get to the pitcher Wood, as Chicago had no bench players left. After getting ahead 0-1, Torres threw four consecutive balls to Wood, walking in the go-ahead run. Milwaukee has had some embarrassing moments over the years, but this was a new level of bad.

> The Brewers had multiple opportunities to end this game, but failed every time. In the bottom of the tenth, they had runners on first and third with two outs, but pinch-hitter Ramon Flores struck out looking to end the threat.

The worst came in the bottom of the twelfth, when Milwaukee had Hector Rondon, usually the Cubs’ closer, on the ropes. Chris Carter reached on an error by the third baseman La Stella to start the inning, and then Rondon and Wood, who came on in relief, issued back-to-back walks to Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Domingo Santana. Wood induced a Hernan Perez fly out to center field that was deep enough to score Carter from third for the first out, and then got back-to-back pop-ups from Aaron Hill and Martin Maldonado to escape. After that mess, they did not deserve to win; you can’t give a team like the Cubs extra chances.

Milwaukee did get one more chance to come back in the bottom of the thirteenth, as Jonathan Villar led off the inning with a double. However, Joe Maddon used three different relievers– Wood, Neil Ramirez, and Clayton Richard– to record one out each and put the Brewers away.

NEWS

> Ryan Braun had the night off to rest a “stiff back.”

> Left-handed reliever Sean Nolin appears set to undergo Tommy John surgery. The Brewers had claimed Nolin off waivers from Oakland in February.

> The Brewers will look to take the series from the Cubs today in a day game. Junior Guerra (2-0, 4.00 ERA) will go for the Crew against Jason Hammel (5-0, 1.77 ERA).

> This past seven-game road trip certainly saw some high points from the Brewers, but in the end, they went just 3-4. After a discouraging start to the series in Cincinnati, the Brewers managed to escape with a split of the four-gamer, but dropped two of three to the Marlins in Miami.

> The first game of the Cincy series– a 9-5 loss– was not good. Chase Anderson’s struggles continued, as he went five innings while giving up seven runs (six earned) on six hits. Anderson desperately needed a decent start; he had gone 0-3 with a 10.12 ERA in his three games prior. However, the Reds jumped all over him early, putting up a five-run first inning followed by two more in the second. The biggest blows were Jay Bruce’s three-run blast and a two-run shot from Brandon Phillips. The Brewers eventually started to fight back in the late innings, but it was too little, too late. Alex Presley’s two-run blast knocked Alfredo Simon (7 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) out of the game, and then Chris Carter hit a missile of a solo shot in the ninth.

The second game wasn’t much better. The Reds knocked around Tyler Cravy, who was making a spot start for Wily Peralta while he was on paternity leave. Cravy struggled in his four innings of work, allowing five runs on six hits while walking two and striking out four. Joey Votto and Phillips both had home runs off Cravy while Adam Duvall hit an RBI double. Rookie starter Tim Adleman was good for the Reds, holding the Brewers to a run on four hits over five innings. He walked three and struck out four; the only damage against Adleman was Presley’s second home run of the series. Also notable in this game was the Reds snapping a streak of 24 games in which their bullpen had allowed at least a run.

Things turned around for the Brewers in the third game, as they won 13-7 in 10 innings. Jimmy Nelson (5.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) got knocked around, and the Brewers found themselves down 6-2 heading into the sixth inning. However, a three-run sixth that included a solo homer from Jonathan Lucroy and an Aaron Hill two-run shot pulled them within one. Hill then tied the game in the eighth on his second home run of the game. The Brewers managed to send the game to extras, and they broke the game open in the tenth inning. Ryan Braun, Lucroy, and Carter hit consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs, and then Hill came up and slugged his third home run of the game in the form of a go-ahead grand slam. The Brewers didn’t stop there, as Jonathan Villar hit a bases-clearing double later in the inning to put the Reds away.

The fourth game, a 5-4 Brewers win, was another great comeback. Milwaukee struck first on Braun’s solo shot in the first inning, but then the Reds got to Junior Guerra (6.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) in the third as Tyler Holt, Ivan De Jesus Jr., and Votto all had RBI hits. Duvall then hit a home run in the fourth to extend Cincinnati’s lead to 4-1. However, the Brewers would slowly chip away over the next few innings to eventually regain the lead. Hernan Perez hit a solo shot in the fifth, Lucroy had an RBI double in the sixth, Villar had an RBI groundout in the seventh to tie the game, and then Lucroy hit a go-ahead solo home run in the eighth.

> The Miami series did not go as well. Milwaukee’s lineup was torn to shreds by Jose Fernandez in the first game; the Marlins’ ace fired seven shutout innings while giving up just four hits. He walked four and struck out 11. The only Brewers run came when Bryan Morris walked Domingo Santana with the bases loaded in the ninth. Peralta started for the Brewers, and wasn’t as terrible as he usually has been this season: he went six innings while giving up two runs on 10 hits. He walked two and struck out four. Peralta should have actually had one more run on his line, but he got lucky in the second inning. J.T. Realmuto hit what should have been a two-run home run, but he “passed” Marcell Ozuna on the basepaths and was called out; he was credited with an RBI single instead of a home run. It actually appeared to be Ozuna’s fault, as he was a few feet off first base waiting to see if the ball would be caught. Then, after Realmuto had already rounded first, Ozuna ran back to first, for whatever reason, as if he was getting ready to tag and take second base. It wound up not costing the Marlins anything, but it was still inattentive baserunning on Ozuna’s part.

The Brewers won the second game handily, 10-2. Zach Davies finally won his first game of the year, going five innings while giving up two runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out one. The only damage against Davies came on Realmuto’s RBI double in the second inning and an RBI single from Ozuna in the third. Milwaukee didn’t hit any home runs, but a majority of the lineup had great days at the plate. Villar went 2-for-6 with two RBIs, Perez was 2-for-3, Braun 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Hill 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Presley 2-for-5. Adam Conley (4.0 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) took the loss for the Fish, as he was not nearly as effective as he was at Miller Park a few weeks ago when he tossed 7 2/3 hitless innings.

The rubber game was a disappointing one for the Crew, as they lost 3-2. Anderson (6.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) finally rebounded and posted a quality start, but he fell to a dominant Wei-Yin Chen, who struck out 12 Brewers. Anderson was stellar aside from a bad fifth inning, when he gave up a two-run homer to rising Brewer-killer Justin Bour and an Adeiny Hechavarria sacrifice fly. The only damage the Brewers could manage against Chen was a Villar RBI groundout and Braun’s RBI single, both of which came in the seventh.

NEWS

> The Brewers reinstated Scooter Gennett from the 15-day disabled list today. He had been dealing with right oblique tightness when he was placed on the DL in late April. Gennett should be a boost to the lineup, as even though he’s hit just .258 on the season, he had four home runs and a .361 on-base percentage through 18 games.

In a corresponding move, Milwaukee optioned infielder Yadiel Rivera to Triple-A Colorado Springs. Rivera had some good games here and there for the Crew, but overall was hitting just .196. It was clear that he lost his job as utility man to Perez, who has hit .276 since being recalled after Gennett was placed on the DL.

> Lefty Sam Freeman accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A.

> MLB Pipeline announced its top 30 prospects for each team, the first prospect list update of the 2016 season. Here is the Brewers’ top 30, which hasn’t changed much:

Orlando Arcia, SS

Brett Phillips, OF

Jorge Lopez, SP (RHP)

Josh Hader, SP (LHP)

Trent Clark, OF

Gilbert Lara, SS

Kodi Medeiros, SP (LHP)

Cody Ponce, SP (RHP)

Devin Williams, SP (RHP)

Jacob Nottingham, C

Isan Diaz, SS/2B

Tyrone Taylor, OF

Clint Coulter, OF

Demi Orimoloye, OF

Monte Harrison, OF

Nathan Kirby, SP (LHP)

Adrian Houser, SP (RHP)

Michael Reed, OF

Marcos Diplan, SP (RHP)

Bubba Derby, SP (RHP)

Taylor Williams, SP (RHP)

Yadiel Rivera, SS

Jake Gatewood, 3B

Rymer Liriano, OF

Victor Roache, OF

Freddy Peralta, SP (RHP)

Miguel Diaz, SP (RHP)

Damien Magnifico, RP (RHP)

Jacob Barnes, RP (RHP)

Brandon Woodruff, SP (RHP)

STATS

> After a slow start, Hill has found his stroke recently. Over his last 15 games, he’s hit .333 with three home runs (all of which came in the same game) and 11 RBIs.

> Nationals starter Max Scherzer struck out 20 in a start against the Tigers last night, tying the Major League record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game. The only others to accomplish this feat are Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Kerry Wood.

> Mets starter Bartolo Colon hit his first big league home run the other night, and it was hilarious. I think the best part was that his home run trot took 31.1 seconds.

> The Brewers start a four-game set at home against the Padres tonight. Nelson (4-2, 3.74 ERA) will take on James Shields (1-5, 3.60 ERA). Milwaukee is the only team Shields has never faced in his big league career. Nelson is 1-1 with a 1.54 ERA in two career starts against San Diego.

Guerra (1-0, 6.00 ERA), Peralta (2-4, 6.75 ERA), and Davies (1-3, 6.29 ERA) will start the other three games of the series, while the Padres have yet to announce the order of their rotation.

> It looked like the Brewers had a series sweep in the bag after the sixth inning on Wednesday, but, unlike the first two games of the series, it was the Angels who played comeback and eventually beat the Brewers 7-3. Zach Davies (0-3, 6.98 ERA) was finally good enough to win, keeping Milwaukee in the game with his first quality start of the season. However, the bullpen that had been able to shut down the Angels early in the series finally broke, and the floodgates opened late in the game for the Angels.

The Brewers struck first in the second inning on Hernan Perez’s solo shot off Angels starter Hector Santiago (2-1, 3.58 ERA). The Angels quickly answered back in the top of the third, however, on Rafael Ortega’s RBI single, which was followed by a Mike Trout RBI triple to put the Halos up 2-1. Ryan Braun tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning with an RBI single, and then, in the sixth, Angels reliever Cam Bedrosian uncorked a wild pitch with the bases loaded, allowing the Brewers to take the lead.

The bullpen had other plans, however. After Carlos Torres threw a clean seventh inning, Tyler Thornburg, who entered the game having had nine scoreless outings out of his ten appearances on the season, ran into a wall in the eighth. Trout waited back on an 0-2 hanging curve from Thornburg and deposited it just over the right field wall to tie the game at 3-3. Thornburg then recorded two outs but continued to struggle, allowing a Kole Calhoun single and walking Geovany Soto. C.J. Cron ripped a go-ahead RBI double to knock Thornburg out of the game, but Johnny Giavotella greeted Blaine Boyer with a two-run single, both of which were charged to Thornburg. The Angels tacked on one more in the ninth on Calhoun’s RBI single off David Goforth.

> Davies was not spectacular on Wednesday, but with the way most of the Brewers rotation has pitched this season, even an average quality start is a miracle. He went six innings while giving up two runs on five hits. Davies walked three and struck out three in what could have been his first win of 2016 if not for the failure of the bullpen.

He did outpitch his mound opponent, Santiago, who also took a no-decision. He went 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits. Santiago walked four and struck out four. The Brewers made him work, forcing him to throw 116 pitches in fewer than six innings.

NEWS

> The Brewers have recalled Tyler Cravy from Triple-A Colorado Springs to start in place of Wily Peralta on Friday. Peralta was placed on paternity leave today following the birth of his daughter.

Perhaps having his start pushed back will be of benefit to Peralta, who has struggled so far in 2016 to the tune of a 7.50 ERA. His replacement, Cravy, has already seen time in the big league bullpen this year, where he pitched to a 3.18 ERA (two runs in 5 2/3 innings) over five games. In 2015, Cravy threw most of his innings at the Major League level out of the rotation, and was 0-8 with a 5.70 ERA in 14 games (seven starts).

> The Crew claimed left-handed reliever Michael Kirkman off waivers from the Padres earlier today. The Padres designated him for assignment earlier this week; he had given up four runs in just 1 1/3 innings at the big league level for San Diego after posting a 4.50 ERA (three runs in six innings) for Triple-A El Paso.

Kirkman was part of the Brewers organization last year and posted a 2.81 ERA in 32 innings for Colorado Springs, an encouraging stat given the hitter-friendly environment. While his strikeout rate was good– he had a 9.6 K/9 for the Sky Sox– he struggled mightily with his command, posting a 7.9 BB/9. Control issues have followed Kirkman all throughout his professional career, though his BB/9 in 108 innings at the big league level is a much more respectable 4.6. He has a 5.25 ERA over that span and spent most of his career with the Rangers up until 2015. Kirkman will likely audition for a spot in the Brewers bullpen, which has lacked effective left-handed relief since Will Smith went down right before the season started. They designated Sam Freeman for assignment earlier this week, leaving Chris Capuano as the only southpaw in the ‘pen at the moment.

> Dave Cameron of Fangraphs suggested that the Red Sox, White Sox, and Nationals would be the best trade partners for the Brewers should they decide to part ways with Braun.

Personally, I doubt the Brewers are going to deal Braun unless they’re absolutely blown away by a potential deal. That could happen with the Red Sox and Nats, as both have pretty impressive farm systems, but I think it’s still a long shot. David Stearns hasn’t hesitated in making big trades early on in his tenure, however, so it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

STATS

> Trout ripped the Brewers to shreds in this series, hitting .538 (7-for-13) with two home runs and seven RBIs. He’s now hitting .522 in his career against the Crew.

> Old friend Albert Pujols also came back to haunt the Brewers, notching four hits during the series. He’s certainly nothing like he was during his glory days in St. Louis, at least average-wise: he’s hitting just .198 so for this season and hit .244 in 2015. However, he slugged 40 home runs in 2015, his highest total since 2010, so the Hall of Fame will no doubt be waiting for him at the end of the road.

> It’ll be a battle of the National League Central bottom feeders this weekend, as the Brewers start a four-game set in Cincinnati tonight. Chase Anderson (1-3, 5.55 ERA) will look to get back on track: he didn’t give up an earned run in either of his first two starts of the season, but has gone 0-3 with a 10.12 ERA in his last three starts. Here’s an encouraging stat, though: he’s 2-0 with a 0.44 ERA in three career starts against the Reds.

The Reds will counter with Alfredo Simon (0-3, 13.50 ERA), who has been absolutely atrocious in 2015. He has yet to make it into the sixth inning in any of his starts and has only completed five once. Simon sports a 3.29 ERA in his career against the Brewers over 11 appearances, though just two of them were starts.

> Yesterday’s game was another disappointing loss, 7-2 at the hands of the Cubs, though this one was expected, so it didn’t hurt as much. On the bright side, the Brewers did score a run off Jake Arrieta (5-0, 1.00 ERA), who, since the beginning of the second half of last year, has been as close to superhuman as one can possibly be (except for some uncharacteristically bad outings in the postseason).

Many speculated it would happen, but it didn’t: Arrieta did not no-hit the Brewers. Though this season, back-to-back starts against the Reds and Brewers would be the most opportune time to toss back-to-back no-hitters.

Arrieta gave up just the one run, but the Brewers made him work a bit. He needed 92 pitches to make it through just five innings, and the Cubs yanked him after that. It was probably a smart decision, though, as the Cubs had a comfortable lead at the time, and Arrieta had thrown 119 pitches in his previous start. He walked four and struck out six.

The Brewers’ only two runs both came courtesy of Alex Presley, who got the start in right field while Domingo Santana had the day off. Presley had an RBI double in the fifth– a rare run-scoring hit off Arrieta– and then a sacrifice fly in the ninth. The other two hits allowed by Arrieta were both to Jonathan Villar: the first was a leadoff single in the first to deny any chance of another no-hitter, then a two-out single in the fifth to set the stage for Presley’s double.

> Taylor Jungmann (0-4, 9.15 ERA) was terrible again. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings while allowing five runs on six hits. He walked three, struck out two, and hit two batters. The biggest blows were Ben Zobrist’s two-run single in the first inning, David Ross’s solo bomb in the second, and then back-to-back RBI doubles from Anthony Rizzo and Tommy La Stella in the third.

NEWS

> Not surprisingly, Jungmann was optioned back to Triple-A Colorado Springs following the start. Reliever David Goforth was recalled in a corresponding move.

After a decent start against the Giants in his season debut, Jungmann completely lost it. He never seemed to recover from his second start of the season, in which he allowed eight runs in just 2+ innings to the Cardinals. Jungmann came up in June of 2015 and almost acted as the ace of the staff for a time, as he went 9-5 with a 2.42 ERA in his first 16 starts in the majors. However, he completely flamed out in September, going 0-3 with a 9.53 ERA in his final five starts of the season. The Brewers hoped he was just getting tired from the extra month of the season that minor leaguers aren’t used to, but it seems he’s just become less effective. We can only hope he’ll figure something out at Triple-A.

The Brewers haven’t announced who will take his place in the rotation yet, but with Matt Garza still out for a while longer, someone will need to bridge the gap. There are a plethora of options in Triple-A right now, such as Jorge Lopez, Hiram Burgos, and Tyler Cravy (who has already seen time in the majors as a reliever this year). If the Brewers want to stay at the major league level, Chris Capuano and Tyler Thornburg are relievers who have previous starting experience.

> Scooter Gennett is headed to the 15-day disabled list with right oblique soreness. He was held out of the lineup on Tuesday with right oblique tightness. Infielder Hernan Perez, who spent most of the season with the Brewers after being claimed off waivers from the Tigers last May, has been recalled from Triple-A to take Gennett’s place.

STATS

> The Brewers’ run off Arrieta snapped his home scoreless streak at 52 2/3 innings, which is the second longest mark in major league history. The longest was set by Ray Herbert of the White Sox, who threw 54 consecutive scoreless innings at Comiskey Park between 1962 and 1963.

> The Brewers start a three-game set with the Marlins tonight. Zach Davies (0-2, 9.72 ERA) will take the mound against power left-hander Adam Conley (0-1, 5.12 ERA). Davies’s only start against the Marlins came late last year, when he held them to a run over seven innings. In two career starts against the Brewers, Conley has a 6.75 ERA with no decisions.